Bio

Tarek is Associate Professor of Creative Industries at the School of Arts at the University of the West of England, Bristol. He is co-lead of the Creative Economies Lab (CEL), at the Digital Cultures Research Centre (DCRC). Tarek is primarily a cultural economist with a focus on the urban and urban dynamics as they pertain to the creative and cultural industries. He has been deeply involved in a number of areas within the creative and cultural industries in the UK and internationally. His research interests span a number of areas within the creative and cultural economy including: The impact of Covid-19 on the creative sector, organisational resilience in the sector, cultural policy, creative and cultural ecosystems, the role of micro-community engagement in culture-led regeneration, the link between the creative industries and local development, creative and cultural hubs, new/novel research methodologies to examine socio-economic urban dynamics, and the changing nature of creative and cultural labour and businesses globally.

Project

He has recently completed an 18-month ESRC funded project that examined the effects of Covid-19 on creative micro-businesses across the UK where he and his team developed an online toolkit aimed at bolstering resilience. He is currently involved in internationalising this work through numerous workshops and speaking engagements across Latin America, Southern Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. He is also part of the evaluation team investigating the impact of the Mayor of London's Creative Enterprise Zone scheme due to be finalised in February 2023. He is leading a new tranche of evaluation work looking at the strengths and challenges of CCI-led Meanwhile Space in Bristol which will be completed towards the end of 2023. Tarek also examines the role of creative hubs within regional economies and their particular role within creative clusters. He continues to work closely with the British Council and other organisations to develop resources and conduct research in this area.